Regina Flying Club -- the early days

The article is based on a 1997 talk given to the Regina chapter of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society by the late Ray Crone, a note Saskatchewan aviation historian.

If
a picture speaks a thousand words, then this photo is a small book -- and a sad one
at that.

A
wrecked aeroplane, the grim faces of burly men, some in uniform, shuffling
around it.

Its
date is Sept. 20, 1935 -- or one day or two thereafter.

The
subject: the crash on Regina's western outskirts that killed pioneering local
aviator Roland Groome and a student, ending an early phase of aviation in this
province.

Groome
had helped launch aviation in Saskatchewan, and helped to launch the Regina Flying Club,
which this year celebrates its 70th anniversary -- a ripe old age in a world
where air organizations seem to come and go.

Just
before the February meeting of the CAHS's Roland Groome Chapter, member Ray Crone
(who found this dramatic photograph and many others) shared with club manager
Tom Ray the fruits of his research -- and found the latter impressed by the scope
of the young flying club's early activities and its gritty will to survive.
"It's quite stunning that this club has managed to hang together,"
said Ray. "And Tom tells me that, in the last few years, they've even
managed to make a couple of bucks!"

___

Before
and during the First World War, daredevil aviators occasionally went aloft from the grassy
infield in the racetrack at Regina Exhibition Park. Postwar, pioneering local
airman Roland Groome, a former Royal Flying Corps Canada instructor, set up a firm called the Aerial
Service Co. in 1919 on the corner of Cameron Street and Hill Avenue, a few
hundred feet west of what's now Albert Street. This company (formed by Groome, and RFC buddies Jack Wight and Robert McCombie, a mechanic) later failed, but it
was notable for owning the first registered aircraft in Canada, Curtiss JN-4
(Can) Canuck G-CAAA.

In
addition, Groome became Canada's first licensed commercial pilot, mechanic
Robert McCombie was the first licensed air engineer and their crude airport was
the first licensed "air harbor" in the Dominion.

To put this into
perspective, Groome undeniably was one of the very first aviators in Canada,
but by no means the only one. For historical purposes, he had the good luck to
be in Regina when trainborne federal air regulators made their first foray out
of Ottawa in the spring of 1920.

Alas,
flying waned as the economy slid downward during the mid-1920s. In
Saskatchewan, 1926 saw not a single flight made -- save for a tragic one that
saw a pilot fall to his death from his Curtiss JN-4 (Can) near Shaunavon on
June 30.

This
flying drought mirrored the situation across Canada. So few pilots were being
trained that aviators were "imported" from Britain for the RCAF, the
Ontario Provincial Air Service and commercial operators.

Mindful
of the aeroplane's military potential, the federal government realized this
could become "a serious problem".

Locally,
another commercial air enterprise overseen by Groome, the grandly named
Universal Air Industries, set up roughly on the site of what is now the Golden
Mile shopping centre in May or June 1927; this was called the "Lakeview
Aerodrome". It was on June 7 of that year -- mere months after Charles
Lindbergh's epochal flight across the Atlantic, that a Morning Leader article
noted there were efforts under way to create a local flying club. As Ray put it,
"Groome and Wight got yakkin' about it. They wanted something to happen,
so they formed their own company and bought the JN-4 (G-CAAL) from Moose Jaw
that had belonged to the Western Aeroplane Company there. It had been sitting
in a defunct flax mill in Moose Jaw. They brought it to Regina and re-built it,
re-covered it; then brought a Swallow up from Wichita in 1927 and began trying
to make a buck or two out of barnstorming or anything they could, carrying
passengers and hoping something would happen. They even wrote letters to Ottawa
and eventually formed a flying club."

The
federal government soon announced a policy under which it would give two
training aircraft to each club of this type, subject to certain conditions. A
series of crated deHavilland Moths were sent to the RCAF station at High River,
Alberta, for assembly and test flying. Flying club members from Saskatoon and
then Moose Jaw were dispatched to pick up their aircraft; those aircraft destined for
Regina were shipped, disassembled, in a boxcar, then trucked to Universal Air
Industries' Lakeview field for assembly.

As
a very small boy in Moose Jaw and Saskatoon, Ray cycled out to see these aircraft,
scarcely recognizing their historical importance.

Regina's
aircraft, for the record, were DH-60X Moths G-CAKP and G-CAKT, operating
briefly from the Universal Air Industries hangar. It also operated a Stinson
SM-2AA in which Canada's first airborne wedding was held over the Queen City on
May 24, 1929.

That
third local aerodrome lasted only about a year before being replaced by the
current airport at the west end of Regina Avenue.

One of Saskatoon's most
prominent members was pilot Richmond Mayson, who with Angus Campbell created
M&C Aviation in Saskatoon and later Prince Albert. After a decade of
northern bush flying, this firm operated a training base and overhaul facility
at Prince Albert during the Second World War. (Postwar, the firm was sold to
the provincial government to become Saskatchewan Government Airways during the
1947; SGA became Norcanair in 1965, then part of Time Air in 1987.)

---

Considering
how hard the 1930s were, an amazing array of flying machines came past the
flying club's quarters at the Regina Municipal Airport.

It
began with the official opening of the new airport on September 15, 1930, timed
to coincide with the arrival of the aircraft of the Ford Reliability Air Tour,
an endurance test of aircraft flying a huge circuit around North America and
gaining contest points, from a starting point at Detroit. This odd cavalcade
(which included a Sikorsky S-38 flying boat, a early Cessna monoplane and
several sleek Lockheed Vega high-wing monoplanes) arrived from Brandon in one
of the "black blizzards" typical of the 1930s. Parked on the ground,
the aircraft stretched for a half-mile.

Barely
a year later, the airport played host to the first Trans-Canada Air Pageant,
perhaps best described as a traveling airshow, complete with five RCAF Siskin fighters
supported by an air force Ford Trimotor loaded with spares and maintenance gear
-- the "Herc" of its day -- plus a civilian Saro Cloud mini flying boat and a
DH Puss Moth. As the air pageant's participants rested at Regina, there appeared an autogiro
CF-ARO, which had flown nonstop from Minneapolis via Winnipeg that day. An odd
sidelight is that a special trophy for flying club proficiency was awarded that
year. The competition was never held again, so the modest trophy still sits in a club
display case. "It was never given to another club," said Ray.

Historical
information survives to give a surprisingly detailed picture of the young
club's personality. Of one airplane, Roland Groome, the chief flying instructor
and manager, said, "I would rather fly than fix it; Jack Wight would
rather fix it than fly!" Art Brazier, the club's air engineer, bought a kit
plane called a Heath Parasol, not only assembling it, but also getting it to
fly with a converted motorboat engine. And finally, Groome began sending out
Christmas cards with increasingly elaborate photographic montages of the club's
activities.

On the operational side, new aircraft were added, including an Avro
Avian with newfangled control rods instead of the more usual control cables.

Moose
Jaw's own airport, located on the site of what's now the federal Prairie Farm
Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) compound on the city's west side, was the
site of a gala flying meet on July 5, 1930. This saw everything from
balloon-bursting to aerobatics, with around 16 aircraft appearing -- a
remarkably large number for such a young industry.

1930 also saw Nellie Carson
of Saskatoon set a record to altitude gained by a woman: in the neighborhood of
16,000 feet -- at which height she "damned near froze to death it was so
cold," Ray says.

On
July 25, 1933 (and coincident with the much-ballyhooed World Grain Show in
Regina), there arrived in Regina the sleek low-wing Northrop Gamma flown by
Frank Hawks, who had flown nonstop from New York -- then returned several days later in one hop to
see his friends, British aviators Jim and Amy Mollison, who had been injured in their
attempt to cross the Atlantic.

One
year later, in mid-July 1934, there flew into the Regina airport (by that point
the only one between Vancouver and Toronto with paved runways) no fewer than
ten Martin B-10 bombers on their way from the eastern U.S. to Alaska to
"show the flag".

One
more year later, tragedy struck. In the Avro Avian CF-CDX with unusual control
"tubes" rather than cables, Roland Groome and student Arnold Sym were
killed in a crash. A subsequent investigation showed that one of the aileron
control rods had become detached -- the tragic accident described at the
beginning of this article.

An
era had ended.

---

The
1934 display by those Martin B-10s was a harbinger of troubled times to come.
Around the world, rearmament was slowly taking place. In Regina, that took the
form of the establishment of an RCAF auxiliary, or reserve unit, called No. 120
(Bomber) Squadron, with Tiger Moth and Gypsy Moth aircraft.

When war broke out
in 1939, it was mobilized, half its personnel going to the west coast, where
the unit eventually flew Hudsons, Stranraers and Cansos. The other half went
east for other duties with many different units. (A more complete description of this unit's pre-war
activities appeared in the February 1990 edition of The Windsock.)

In
Regina, the local flying club received a contract to operate two flying training schools that
officially opened in February 1940: 15 EFTS, which used Tiger Moths and later
Cornells, plus 3 Air Observer School, which flew Ansons. Postwar, a grateful Department of National Defence
gave the club six Tiger Moths, a Stinson 105 plus a Cessna Crane.

Another
military training aircraft used by the club was the DHC Chipmunk, one example
of which (CF-CXS) was briefly loaned by the RCAF to the club in the late 1940s.

Over
the next 50 years, the club has used aircraft ranging from Cessna 120s,
Taylorcraft and various Piper products. And this summer will see the club
training a batch of air cadets to do what it's been doing for 70 years: to fly.
"It's great to see them learning to fly," said Ray, adding: "Who
knows where it will lead?"